Just can't get enough of IT

Exchange Server uses Receive Connectors for providing SMTP endpoints for incoming connections. A modern Exchange Server provides a default connector on TCP port 25. 

Sometimes you might have a requirement to create a new receive connector for selected incoming SMTP connections. A standard requirement is a receive connector for relaying messages to external recipients. This cannot (should not) be achieved using the default connector.

Each connector uses the RemoteIPRanges attribute to store the list of IP addresses of remote systems that can connect to that connector. The default connector utilizes the full IPv4 and IPv6 addresses ranges.

Your new receive connector requires at least a single IP address for a selected remote system that is supposed to connect to that receive connector. You can add a single IP address, address ranges, or IP addresses using CIDR notation.

The attribute RemoteIPRanges is a multi-value attribute and has a limit of IP address entries that can be added. 

The maximum number of address entries that you can add to that attribute varies. You can store approximately 1,300 entries.

When you exceed the number of values you receive the following error message:

The administrative limit for this request was exceeded.
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-ReceiveConnector], AdminLimitExceededException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : [Server=EX01,RequestId=ee9d45ad-418b-4172-9235-963eca1a7830,TimeStamp=18.08.2020
    20:07:54] [FailureCategory=Cmdlet-AdminLimitExceededException] AC1E336E,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.SystemConfi
  gurationTasks.SetReceiveConnector
    + PSComputerName        : ex01.varunagroup.de

I have tested the number of values that can be stored in that multi-value attribute. Depending on the IP address format I was able to add 1,238 (172.80.x.y) or 1,244 (10.1.x.y) single IP addresses to the RemoteIPRanges attribute.

Plan your IP address configuration requirements carefully and avoid using single IP addresses. Preferably, you should use IP address ranges or IP address CIDR notation for networks.

Links

• Set-ReceiveConnector

Enjoy Exchange Server!

The Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon took place on May 27-28 2020.

The recording of my session "Exchange Hybrid - What, Why, and How" is available on YouTube. 

Browse all recordings of the Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrtmT6Ir1MIs0ZES7sKMmqA

Enjoy!

This is a post summarizing the configuration values for important Exchange-related Active Directory object attributes.

Whenever you need to look up these values for troubleshooting, or editing the values manually.

Note: You should not edit any of the values manually, just because you can. Edit any Exchange-related attributes, if you are familiar with the result of your changes.

RemoteRecipientType

Attribute

• msExchRemoteRecipientType 

Recipient Type 

Attribute

• msExchRecipientDisplayType

• Exchange Server: msExchRecipientTypeDetails
• Exchange Online: RecipientTypeDetails

Microsoft 365 Groups are the backbone of various Microsoft 365 workloads. As you might know, each group utilizes a SharePoint site collection, and an Exchange shared mailbox.

When you create a new Microsoft 365 group, SharePoint Online must store the associated site collection somewhere. SharePoint Online uses predefined paths to determine the storage location. These paths are called: Managed Paths.

SharePoint Online uses two different pre-configured managed paths:

• /sites
• /teams

With /sites as the default setting for the Microsoft 365 tenant.

Whenever you create, e.g., a new team in Microsoft Teams, the associated site collection is stored in https://TENANTNAME.sharepoint.com/sites/TEAMNAME. As a SharePoint administrator, you see the site collection paths in the list of active sites in the SharePoint Admin Center.

But what can you do, if you want to store the associated site collections in the /teams managed path?

Changing the Managed Path

The SharePoint Admin Center provides you with an option to change the managed path for sites, created by users. 

Open the SharePoint Admin Center, navigate to Settings -> Site Creation.

Change the setting for Create team sites under to /teams/.

The description of this setting is misleading. This setting affects not only SharePoint team site creation initiated by users on the SharePoint start page or OneDrive, but site collections created by Microsoft 365 Groups as well.

You do not need to enable the checkbox to let users create sites from the SharePoint start page and OneDrive. This setting is only required, when you want to enable self-service site creation of modern SharePoint sites for users. The modern SharePoint sites are based on Microsoft 365 Groups.

After changing the path, SharePoint Online creates new associated site collections for Microsoft 365 Groups in /teams/.

Enjoy SharePoint Online.

The Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon is happening on May 27-28 2020.

This is a free online event, providing you with 36 hours of non-stop sessions from speakers around the globe. You can join every time. 

• 300+ Speakers
• 400+ Sessions
• Keynotes by Jeff Teper, Naomi Moneypenny, Bill Baer, Jon Levesque, Laurie Pottmeyer, and Michael Holste
• Sessions are primarily in Englisch, but there are session in six additional languages
  • French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish 
• Hashtag: #M365VM

The virtual conference is a joint effort with SPC.

I speak at Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon about:

• Exchange Hybrid - What, Why, and How
• Wednesday, May 27th
• 23:00h (CEST)

The marathon session plan is available here.

Register now.

Link

• Register for Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon

Enjoy!